Tales of the Teen Titans: The Taking of Terra, One, Two, Three
by Nitebreaker
Summary: The threat of the hidden Osiran Lord is over, but at a terrible cost. What will a transformed Kitten do now? Will she stay in the light, or return to the shadows? What of Slade, Angelique, and the Kindred? What of the Hunters? And, perhaps most importantly, will Beast Boy and Terra ever get to tie the knot in peace? It's all smooth sailing, right? Riiiiiigghhht. NOW COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue: Families

_Sorry for the length of this chapter, but try as I might, I couldn't break it down any further. I know I'm using a lot of OC's here, but it will all come together, in time. Please be patient. And thank you all for your kindness and encouragement...we all need some of that, from time to time._

_Oh, and I don't own the Teen Titans. Just thought you should know._

Tales of the Teen Titans: The Taking of Terra, One, Two, Three

Part One: Prologue: Families

Morning at the Tower: Kitten had flown back with them, and had spent the night in Omega's old room, getting things in order. "I need to come up with some way for you to control that matter manipulator manually. Omega hooked into it directly, but that's not an option for the rest of us." She turned to Robin. "But I won't actually need to be here for that. Maybe some heavily modified computer-assisted design program….I'll send you the specs. Don't guess I have to tell you, keep this thing under wraps. Don't even let anyone know about it. I mean, I got shot over some mutant bugs, of all things. This thing'ud probably start World War Three, Four, and Five concurrently." She paused. "You got those other specs to Cyborg?"

"Yeah. He's looking them over right now." Robin, Starfire, Raven, and Kitten were in Omega's old room "Kitten? You, uh, do know you don't have to go, don't you?"

Kitten actually smiled, the first time she'd done so in at least a day. "You're offering me membership in the Titans? The bad girl? Your sort-of arch-nemesis? Thanks, but no thanks. It's just not for me. I'm not the hero type….."

"I said that same thing, once," murmured Raven.

"….and, in any case," and here she looked around the room, eyes misting over, "I couldn't stay, you know, _here._ Too many….memories." _But how can I stay anywhere else? A part of me will always be here._

"Kitten?" Starfire's voice was softer than usual. "I once hated you, because I thought you were trying to take Robin away from me. But…I sympathize with your loss." She looked down at her feet. "I know that helps little, but…."

"That's okay, Starfire. It helps more than you know. And, and I guess I'll be alright. Just….just takes some getting used to, is all."

"When my parents died," continued Starfire, "I thought the pain would never go away. And it doesn't, not completely. But it gets better, with time."

Kitten didn't know what to say to that, so she just murmured, "Thanks." Then, "Well, I'd best be getting on. Dad's up on the roof, waiting…"

"Kitten?" Beast Boy and Terra had just entered the room. "I never thought I'd be saying this, but don't be a stranger, 'kay?"

She smiled, sadly. "I….won't, BB. In fact, if Cyborg needs any help getting that contraption to working, gimme a ring. And that's something else: you might wanna consider sending it up to the Watchtower, and storing it there. At least, I would, if it were mine. It probably won't be totally safe there, but better there than here, where every Tom, Dick, and Slade can steal it. Or cause _mucho grande_ misery tryin'."

"Guys?" asked Terra, "Could I have a moment alone with Kitten, before she goes?" The others agreed, puzzled, and filed out of the room.

Terra sat by Kitten on the bed, the same bed Kitten had slept in when she had been staying here, after her transformation. _The same one she'd shared with Omega_. Did _everything_ in the blankety-blank _universe _have to remind her of him? It felt like an empty space, a physical _hole_ had been carved out of her soul. "Did Robin mention to you about maybe joining up with us?"

"Yeah. But it's really not for me. At least not now. I mean, after all the times we've crossed swords, I can't see them as really trusting me anyway. And I just don't care for 'probationary periods', either. Been there, done that, got the bright orange jump suit to prove it. Besides. You guys don't need me; you're all at full strength. I'd just be in the way."

"Gar and I are planning on a kind of semi-retirement after we get married, so we won't be as available as we have been. I don't know what Robin and Starfire's plans are—you heard he proposed, didn't you? Yeah. Actually popped the ol' question on her one night. They may continue on as before, or they, too, could sorta back off being full time members. After all, this kind of lifestyle just isn't conducive to raising a family, and that's what Gar and I plan on doing.

"Beside." And here, Terra paused, drawing her knees up into her arms, "I'm not being totally one hundred percent altruistic here. I'd much rather have you for us than against us. And doesn't that make a certain amount of sense to you, too? Having people you can count on to stand by you, in a crisis?"

Kitten looked at her. Terra might look like your typical California beach ornament, but there was a shrewdness about her….she definitely had a little bad girl in her. Maybe more than a little. She smiled a kind of a lopsided smile. "Well. Since you put it that way…..I'll think about it. That's the best I can do for right now."

"All I can ask. Say, Gar and I are gonna go shopping later. Wanna come?"

"No way. I'd weird everybody around you out." She gestured at her bright red skin.

"Uh, Kitten? Have you seen my fiancé lately? He's green? And changes into animals?"

"He doesn't have a tail."

"True. Most of the time. Kinda fun when he does, though."

"Uhm." Kitten rubbed the side of her face, to shake that mental image. That was _almost_ bordering on Too Much Information, but it _was_ deliciously naughty to think about. "I, uh, get your point. But…still. I really better be getting back home. It's almost suppertime, and my father trying to cook is a Defcon stage alert."

"Well, as Gar said, don't be a stranger. And think about that offer, would'ja?" Terra put her hand on the other girl's arm, Kitten's higher body temperature not bothering her overly for this brief duration. "I mean, everybody needs someone, sometime."

"I will, Terra. And thanks."

But once back home, it seemed like the silence in her room was almost deafening. She didn't have any appetite, even though her father praised the dinner she'd fixed for them highly. She made polite excuses and left to return to her room, which had never seemed so lonely before. His eyes followed her worriedly as she went upstairs.

Once there, she threw herself down onto her bed, face down. Again, the tears came, unbidden. Had she been such a terrible person, done such horrible things, that her life had to suck _this much?_ First, she'd gotten shot by an ape over some bugs. Then turned into a walking freak show by some crazy mad scientist, for God only knew why. Now, this: the only guy she'd ever really cared about, and the only one who'd ever really cared about her, or ever would, went all super-saiyan on some bad guy's ass, blew himself higher'n up, all to save the world from mental slavery.

What, really, had she done to deserve all _this?_

It just wasn't _fair,_ dammit!

…..

A short time before: Angelique had been moping in her room at the hive of the Kindred, when someone signaled for entrance. This was not an Osiran custom, but one her new extended family had come to adopt when they adopted _her._ She quested the Link for the identity of the person seeking entrance: it was Father Alpha himself. {{Come in, Father,}} she replied, sitting up, all the while wondering what he could be here for. He was always so busy.

Alpha entered, and stood with his hands behind his back. {{Daughter. You are upset.}} It was not a question.

Angelique lowered her eyes. There was no point in hiding it from him. {{Yes, father, I am.}}

He came over and sat beside her on her bed, hands on his knees. {{And your unease has something to do with Slade.}} Again, it was not a question. Angelique was silent. {{Maria? Has he tried to hurt you in some way?}}

{{No, Father. He—he's been very good to me. He's taught me a lot…}}

{{You are concealing something from me.}}

Angelique was silent. Then, {{Yes, father, I-I guess I am. I suppose I'm actually concealing it from myself, really. Or trying to.}}

For a moment, Alpha was silent in the Link. Then he gently placed his overly-long fingers on his adopted daughter's arm and said, just as gently, {{Tell me what has happened. Tell me of your suspicions and what led you to them. Tell me everything.}}

The relationships in families are varied and complex. There are times—many times-when a child needs her mother, and no one else will do. And then there are some things the same child can share with her father, that simply cannot be shared with her mother.

Sometimes you need sugar. Sometimes you need salt.

And so Alpha listened to Angelique's story with a mounting sense of disquiet, shifting into suspicion, culminating in an emotion he'd never really felt before: anger.

…..

In his new lair, Slade was monitoring his news feeds and spybot info dumps. The girl, Tara, had gotten away from him before he was ready to "recruit" her, but she'd have been perfect: another Terra, but this one totally untrained in the use of her powers and unable to fight back against the neuro suit he'd put her in. Well, perhaps something could still be salvaged from the fiasco; she was currently with Titans' East; perhaps she could be "persuaded" to return home. And there were other clones, but finding them was proving more problematical than expected….

Suddenly, his displays cleared themselves simultaneously. _Slade Wilson,_ flashed a message across each screen. What? Had someone hacked into his computer banks? But that wasn't possible….

He reached for the keyboard, to type in a response, to buy time. _That won't be necessary, Slade Wilson. I can hear you when you speak. And I am standing right behind you._

Slade whirled. Standing behind him, about twenty feet away, was a small, almost frail-looking creature, pale white in coloration, no more than five feet tall, wearing a loose-fitting grey coverall-type garment, with a large, bulbous head and great black staring eyes. The creature had almost no nose, and only a small line where the mouth would be on a human. It might've been Slade's imagination, but that mouth seemed set in an expression of distaste.

Or anger.

His overhead speakers came online, staticky at first, but forming recognizable words. The creature's mouth did not move, but the words emerged from the speakers. "You are Slade Wilson. I am Alpha, leader of the Kindred. The one you know as Angelique is my adopted daughter."

Slade found his voice. He'd been all over the world, fought foes most men couldn't even imagine, and did not scare easily. Nonetheless, he was….tense, for some reason. The Thinker (for so it had to be) faced him with complete calm, almost as though _he_ were the master here.

Then he remembered how easily the being had subverted his systems. Maybe he _was._

"Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you, sir. Your daughter has told me a lot about—"

"You placed nanoprobes in her pet, Charlie."

"Ehrm. Yes, to monitor his health condi—"

"I've neither the time nor the inclination to deal with your mendacity. I know the purpose of the probes. I've examined them myself."

"You…have?"

"They were to take over a vital part in the animal's immune system. Should Charlie be moved from beyond the range of your short-range communication system, Bluetooth, I believe you call it, or should you, for whatever reason, decide not to send a 'reset' command, they would cease to function, leading Charlie to suffer immediate health problems, to be followed by a slow, no doubt unpleasant death. Unless, of course, reinfected with another set of those self-same nanoprobes."

Slade said nothing, but beads of sweat were running down his face behind his mask. He couldn't recall ever having been quite this afraid of anything before…..

Alpha cocked his head, studying the human in front of him, like a bug under a microscope. From the speakers: "You have done a great deal for my daughter. You have taught her self-control, which is always useful. You have given her some insight into how the world—your society, as it currently is—works. This, too, is useful information. And, though your reason can be faulted, you did give Charlie a place to stay. For a while.

"These are the only reasons you will survive the terminus of this conversation.

"I have instructed my daughter to have nothing further to do with you. I now instruct you to do likewise."

Slade's mouth was very dry. "Or…..?"

Now Alpha actually smiled, slightly. From the speakers overhead: "The self-same nanoprobes—somewhat modified, of course-you placed in Charlie…are now in you, Slade Wilson. I control them. And, should you require further incentive to comply, be it known that if any harm comes to my daughter from any avenue under your influence…..I will simply let her mothers deal with you. I do not think you would like that. In fact, I will go so far as to say that I think you would dislike that for a very, very long time. They are quite protective of her, you see. Even more so than I. And very passionate in her defense." And with that, the Osiran glowed brightly and faded from sight, teleporting away.

Leaving Slade alone to ponder this….._most unfortunate_ turn of events.

…..

It was midnight. Kitten found she couldn't sleep. Well, no texting Omega this time. _Now stop that, girl, you'll start the waterworks all over again._ So she decided to just take a walk in the park. Without thinking about it, she unconsciously headed for the self-same park bench she'd been sitting on when she first met Omega, so long ago.

Realizing that, of course, didn't help anything, and she started crying again. _Dammit, how much longer is this gonna go on, anyway? You'd think I'd run out of tears sooner or later._

"Lady? What's wrong?"

Kitten looked up. Standing there was a little dark-haired _latina_ girl, maybe about eight or so, holding a small dog. "Are you alright, lady?"

"_Lady"? Reality check, here. Well, I guess I must look older'n dirt to a kid her age._ "Yeah, kid, I'm alright."

"Then why are you crying?"

"I, I don't think you'd understand."

"Try me. Please? Maybe I can help."

Well, that was kinda….sweet of her. Time had been, when Kitten would've told the kid to buzz off, but she'd matured some since then. Plus, the little girl really seemed sincere. She came over and sat by Kitten on the bench, still holding the sleeping puppy. "Well, if you really wanna know, my—my boyfriend's dead. And, and I miss him." _I miss him so much._

"Who was your boyfriend? And how did he die?"

"You probably don't know him. He was a member of the Teen Titans. His name was Omega, and he died ridding the world of a monster."

The girl gasped. "_Omega?_ The Osiran Prime warrior? I met him! _He_ was your boyfriend?"

"You, you met him? How?"

"At Taco Bell. He was getting some food for a friend…wait. That's you, isn't it? You're the friend he was trying to help, aren't you? The one who got…changed?"

"Yep." She sniffled, trying to dry her eyes. "That's me. He was h-helping me get through some rough times. And, and….well. We fell in love. And now he goes and dies on me." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand; she didn't have a handkerchief on her, but she needed to blow her nose.

The girl seemed to be pondering that. "So he's dead. He seemed really nice." She turned to Kitten. "I really feel sorry for you, lady. I….know what it's like to lose someone you love." She looked down at the sleeping dog in her arms. "I lost my mom-I mean, literally lost her, I don't know where she is—a couple of years ago. But I mean, I hope to find her someday. But, but I miss her terribly."

Kitten dried her eyes further and stuck out her hand, which the little girl accepted. "I'm Kitten, by the way."

"I'm Angelique. And this," and here she indicated the dog in her arms, "is Charlie." She paused. "I used to work for Mr. Slade, but he did a bad thing to Charlie, an' now my father's told me to stay away from him. But now I don't have a place for Charlie. He can't stay with my family…."

"Oh, so _you're_ Angelique. Well. I've heard quite a lot about you. You're pretty powerful, aren't you?"

"Oh, yes. And I'm getting better all the time."

Inspiration came to Kitten at that moment. "Angelique? Maybe…maybe I, or somebody I know, could help you find your mom. Would you like that?"

"Oh, yes! More than anything!"

"Okay." Kitten turned sideways, facing Angelique. "I'll need you to do some things. Nothing big; just come with me to Titans' Tower and let me introduce you to the gang. Then we can go over your story, and Robin can start looking for your mom. 'Kay?"

Angelique bit her lip, looking doubtful. "I—I dunno. I, I think I killed one of them, not long ago….."

"No, you didn't. So. Will you come with me to the Tower? That's the only way we'll get things really moving, an' let Robin do his thing. He _is _a detective, after all. And since you're not working for Slade anymore, they're no longer your enemies. Will you come with me to the Tower, tell the others about finding your mom?"

"Well….okay."

Kitten summoned her flying platform. Angelique didn't need it, of course, and Kitten marveled at how easily the child shifted into a miniature jet form for flight. Charlie, of course, was inside the cockpit, paws against the window, looking out with his tongue dangling in delight.

On the way, Kitten called Robin. "Hey, Rob. I, uh, got somebody you need to meet. Wanna assemble everybody on the roof? We're not too far from there now."

Angelique and Kitten touched down lightly on the Titans' helipad just as the Titans were emerging from below. Kitten took the now-humanoid-shaped Angelique's hand in hers, and, with Angelique still holding Charlie, approached the group. "Guys, I want you to meet a new friend of mine. Of ours, actually." She turned to the girl beside her, who was fighting the urge to hide behind her. It was one thing to fight someone; it was quite another to meet them face-to-face. That required a different kind of courage. "Guys…..This is Angelique."

There was a stunned silence. Everybody there remembered the battles they'd had, Beast Boy in particular remembering how she'd almost killed him, and would have, had not the Orb intervened. But nonetheless he was the first to come forward, kneeling before Angelique. "So you're Angelique."

"Yes." She couldn't meet his gaze. "I—I'm sorry I tried to kill you. But Mr. Slade said all of you were, were bad people who, who went around causing trouble for everyone, taking people's money, and hurting them." She looked down at Charlie, in her arms. "He lied to me. You aren't the bad guys; _he_ was."

Garfield was silent for a moment. Then, "That's alright, Angelique. I understand. I know what it's like to be lied to, to be used like that. It's okay; I forgive you. Apology accepted. Shake on it?" He offered his hand, which she accepted, grinning.

A blond girl came and knelt beside him. "Hi, Angelique. I'm Terra, and I used to work for Slade myself. So I know how he can twist things up, say the words you want to hear, make you believe almost anything."

"Yeah, I remember you, from the bank. You can move stuff with your mind, can't you? Man, that is _so awesome!_ I wish _I_ could do that."

Robin broke in. "Okay, people. Tell you what. Let's move this party downstairs to the conference room. We can get some snacks goin', and find out what we can do for Angelique here."

Once down in the conference chamber, soft drinks and chips all around, seated at the table, Angelique told them the whole story: her mother, the white powder, the scary men and what she thought they wanted to do to her, her adoption by the Kindred, and her transformation, finally ending up with meeting Slade on the street, with his proposal of helping her find her mother. "But nothing ever came of it. He said it was like she just vanished from the face of the Earth." She looked at the assembled heroes, very much a little girl despite her awesome power. "Can you help me? I, I really wanna find her."

"We'll try, Angelique," promised Robin, "But just understand: sometimes, when people get involved in illegal matters, they change names, identities, everything. So it's not a matter of just looking her up on the internet, or a phone book or something. We'll probably have to do it the old-fashioned way: finding people who knew her, and asking them. And," and here his voice turned grim, "while we're at it, we'll find those men who took you from her." He smacked his fist into the palm of his hand. "I'd _really_ like to meet them." Murmurs of agreement went around the table. "I think it's safe to say we all would."

Angelique smiled, suddenly at ease despite these unfamiliar surroundings. She'd respected Slade, up to a point, and she loved her Kindred family dearly, but this was different. Now, for the first time in her life, she had met some people with whom she could be _friends_. True, they were older than she was, but she could feel the warmth of their camaraderie even as they spoke. They truly cared about her. "Well, thank you. Thank all of you. But I still gotta find a place for Charlie to live…."

"Oh, _that's_ not a problem," spoke up Kitten, "Charlie can stay at my place. I mean, it's got a fenced in yard and everything. And my dad can't _possibly_ object, since he's, ah, uhm, let's just say, _extremely well equipped_ to take care of biological organisms anyway. One little puppy can't be that much trouble." She turned to Angelique. "So whaddaya say? Wanna go meet my dad? I gotta warn ya: he's a little different looking, but he's basically good people."

"Oh, yes, please!"

…..

Far, far out in space, something slowed down from moving at relativistic speeds. It really wasn't a thing, as such, so much as it was a condition in space/time. It had been traveling through intergalactic space at nearly the speed of light. But now, for whatever reason, it began to slow.

By sheer coincidence—or perhaps not—it just happened to be in the general vicinity of the planet called Earth.

An unconscious figure fell out of the wormhole's mouth, tumbling end over end. The figure was humanoid, but unlike most humanoids, did not expand and explode from internal gas pressure, as would normally happen. Instead it simply fell through space.

It was too far from any source of light for human eyes to actually see it, but, had anyone been able to, they might have taken note of the being's ivory-white skin and hair, the black and silver uniform….

…..

Apokolips: Darkseid, Lord of the planet, was visiting his son in DeSaad's medical chamber. "You disobeyed orders, Kalibak. Again. Being of my blood will only preserve you and your incompetence so far."

Kalibak was bound almost head to foot in bandages and splints. "Yes, father. I am sorry." He couldn't meet his father's red-eyed gaze. But then, few could.

"You certainly are. Now. Tell me of this creature that did this to you."

Kalibak's eyes glazed over in memory. "It—it was fast, father. Very fast. And, and powerful." He looked up, suddenly. "I _could_ have handled it. But it moved so fast…."

"Enough. Describe it." When Kalibak had finished doing so, Darkseid turned, thoughtfully. "Hm. A new race…or perhaps the remnants of an old one? I must check the records." He turned to Kalibak, still lying in his bed of misery. "Very well. For this information, you have earned one quarter day's cycle of pain relief. But I have instructed DeSaad to withhold such relief from you, save for that necessary for the continuance of your miserable life. Perhaps that pain will teach you to follow instructions, next time."

"Yes, father. Th-thank you." Darkseid turned to go. In so doing, he missed seeing the fleeting glimpse of a feral smile on the face of the creature on the bed behind hm. _Yes, "father." I will follow instructions._

_But not necessarily yours._

….

The rain was coming down in buckets, washing against the windows of Titans' Tower, as Raven walked down the hallway. She'd been having trouble sleeping, lately—no, strike that; she'd been having disturbing dreams lately that made her question the value of sleep.

She remembered some of them. Usually, they consisted of her and Beast Boy either making out or outright having sex. This shamed her; Garfield was, after all, engaged, and to her friend to boot. She would never, in her waking time, try to do anything to come between them.

It hadn't always been this way. These dreams had started up only recently. Why? Well, that was no mystery: His and Terra's wedding day was fast approaching, and it was kind of a no-brainer that her subconscious was telling her to "make her move," as the saying went, while there was still time.

Maybe it was her demonic heritage. Demons thrived on negative energies; maybe her darker nature was trying to get her to stir up or in some way cause some trouble in order to feed off the negative emotions such an action would surely produce. Well, if so, it was in for a disappointment; _she_ was still in charge, and she wasn't going to let her dark nature bring harm to her friends.

Her relationship with Hank just didn't seem to be going anywhere. There was nothing wrong with it, it just…somehow wasn't satisfying. He was respectful, kind, considerate, and she could sense he truly cared about her. Looking at the matter objectively, he was everything she wanted in a man. So why couldn't she return the emotion?

She went into her room, into the bathroom. Looked at her reflection in the mirror over the sink. "You are one grade A classic piece of work, you know that?" Her reflection nodded. "You want the unattainable, the 'forbidden fruit,' as it were. Here he was, all along, and you did nothing. Now he's getting married, and _now _you get the hots for him? Well, it's not going to work." She set her jaw in an expression of determination. "If I have to, to go away until they're safely husband and wife, I will. I will _not_ cause them misery. Besides, I'd only be making a fool of myself, anyway. Beast Boy doesn't see me that way and never has. He's just my friend, my best friend maybe, but still." She straightened up, ran some cold water in the sink, and splashed it on her face. "I have more self-control than that."

"_Rrraven…."_

Raven jerked her head up. For the briefest of instants, she thought she saw another figure in the mirror besides her own. She whirled around, defensive spells ready, but there was nobody there.

Cautiously, she examined her room, inch by inch. Not only was there no sign of any intruder, but there was no astral impression that anyone had been in here in the last few hours. But she was _certain_ she'd heard _someone_ call her name.

_Someone_ or _something._

People and other beings who use, or make use of, magic, are subject to a unique danger: they tend to stand out to the various supernatural entities that exist in the otherwhere. So magic-users tend to draw attention to themselves, simply by existing. And more often than not, they draw the attention of predators. Unearthly predators.

So Raven very carefully went over not only her own room, but the entire tower, sitting in the lotus position, floating above her bed. Only when she was completely and thoroughly satisfied that there was no unwanted intrusion did she relax her guard. One last check to make. {{Orb? Are you there?}}

**{{Yes, Raven, I am here.}}**

{{I thought I sensed something here in the tower with us. Have you sensed anything unusual?}}

{{**Puzzlement. No, Raven, I have not sensed any other presences besides those who normally reside within this domicile.**}}

Raven breathed a sigh of relief. If the Orb didn't sense anything…. {{Perhaps it was just my imagination, then.}}

{{**Are you troubled? Do you wish to talk?**}}

She smiled, slowly lowering herself down onto her bed. {{Not tonight, Orb. We'll talk tomorrow. But if you sense any intruding presence, please alert me immediately. Alright?}}

{{**Of course, Raven. And do not worry. I will not let any harm befall you or your friends.**}}

{{Thank you, Orb.}} It never ceased to amaze her how something so _alien_, so strange to mortal beings, could, at the same time, be so _friendly._ But perhaps that very strangeness made for a better friend: fewer points of conflict. {{Well. I am going to bed now. I will see you in the morning.}}

{{**And I will be here. Thank you, Raven.**}}

She was startled. {{For what?}}

{{**For being my friend. It is something I treasure immensely.**}}

Raven was taken aback. Even though she'd never really been a "people person," still, she'd had a number of years of having friends under her belt, and perhaps she'd come to take that for granted. Sort of. {{Well, thank _you_ for being _my_ friend. That's something I value as well.}}

{{**Raven?**}}

{{Yes, Orb?}}

{{**I sense how you feel about Garfield Logan. It causes you pain.**}}

Dammit, dammit, _dammit_. Too late she remembered the Orb was an emotiphage, able to sense the feelings, as well as the thoughts of others. {{Well, that is…..something I should not feel, Orb. But we humans are not always in control of our feelings, as you may have surmised.}}

{{**So I have gathered. Raven? I realize that I know nothing of human love, but I hope you can take a certain amount a comfort in knowing that, in my own way, **_**I**_** love you. Very much.**}}

Raven smiled, her eyes misting. What were the odds? The most alien form of life yet encountered, and it knew about _love._ Too much of Raven's life had been spent dealing with demons, who knew all about hate, but nothing about love. Or with humans, who knew all about self-interest, but little about interest in others. {{Thank you, Orb. I love you, too, as a friend, of course.}}

{{**You are most welcome. Now rest. Sleep. As before, I will watch over you, to ensure that no harm befalls you.**}}

And, as before, Raven slept.

…..

In her room at the Kindred's hive, Angelique twisted and turned in uneasy slumber. While it was true she no longer needed sleep in the same way humans did, she found it restful for clearing away the cobwebs of thoughts and feelings of the day. It gave her what psychologists called "closure," and so, she sought it each night. Then too, occasionally, her dreams were…..enlightening.

Such was not the case now. Now she found herself standing on a rocky landscape, all sharp angles and great stone columns rising up from various points in the ground, for no discernible reason. A dull red glow spread over everything, coming from a point behind her. And the smell was _awful._

She turned around. There, before her, was what appeared to be a vast sea of molten lava, stretching as far away as the eye could see. The ground she was standing on was a basaltic, volcanic shoreline to this lava sea, which lapped sluggishly against the rocky coastline.

She looked up. The stars overhead seemed dismal and wan, somehow. Although the night sky was just as black as any ordinary night sky, it seemed to her that she could see _objects_ moving in that vast expanse, objects that produced no light of their own, that she could somehow nonetheless see. They didn't look like planets or stars. In fact, some of them looked like….

….it hurt her mind to think about what they actually looked like. But somehow they gave the impression of being living beings, beings of colossal size….

"_Mmaria…"_ It was the barest whisper, but she recognized her name. Someone or something was calling her.

Angelique had long mastered dream control. This was only a dream, albeit a strangely disturbing one, even though she couldn't really say why. It wasn't like her former nightmares of the scary men; this was some sense of a vague, omnipresent _danger_ from some source she couldn't identify. But, for all that, it was still only a dream, and so should present her with no danger.

Where was Bear? Usually, when she had bad dreams, Bear would appear, and walk her through the worst of them, even protecting her, showing her that they were only dreams, and she was in control. But Bear wasn't here, and he didn't appear when she called for him. She began to be a little bit afraid; that hadn't happened before.

"Maria!" A voice, a clearly human voice, startled her. It was coming from the shoreline, from the lava sea. "Help me, Maria! Save me!" She ran over to the very edge of the shoreline and gasped to see her new friend, the red girl, the one called _Kitten_, clinging onto a ledge projecting out over the lava. "Help me, Maria! I can't hold on much longer!"

"Don't worry, Miss Kitten, I'll save you!" But try as she might, she couldn't morph her arms into anything long enough to reach her new friend. No matter how far she reached, she couldn't quite reach Kitten. That was weird; her new friend couldn't be more than twenty feet away, but even morphing her arms thirty, forty, fifty feet seemed, for some reason, to fall short of that mark. "Enough of _this_." She morphed into jet mode, and launched herself off the cliff, curving around in a trajectory that would bring her up under Kitten, where she could easily grab her and fly her to safety.

But again, she couldn't get close enough. Even though she firewalled her engines to the max, producing enough thrust to force herself bodily through a small mountain, she still couldn't seem to get close enough. There was no hindrance to her, nothing blocking her, like a force field; rather, it was like a mirage, where the object one pursues appears to grow ever more distant the closer one gets to it.

Now she sensed something rising up behind her, from out of the lava sea. Part of her instinctively wanted to turn and see what it was, but another, more ancient part warned her not to. What was coming up behind her wasn't something she wanted to see; just the mere _seeing_ of it would, would do something bad to her. Something really bad. But she had to get to Miss Kitten. She had to save Miss Kitten.

Straining her abilities to the utmost, she grew a pair of arms and reached out, ever farther out, seeking to reach the girl clinging for dear life to the cliff side. And, as before, her arms didn't _quite_ go far enough. But maybe…"Miss Kitten! You'll have to jump! Jump into my arms!" The figure on the cliffside turned, got a better purchase with her claws, and sprang towards Angelique's outstretched arms….

….only to fade completely out of existence before she reached them. "No! Miss Kitten! Where are you?" Angelique was left alone, hovering over the lava sea, with some monstrous, unnamable _thing_ rising up, endlessly up, from the bubbling lava behind her.

A thing she now sensed had _noticed_ her…

She awoke, gasping, in her bed at the Kindred's hive, Bear clutched in her arms. She held Bear at arm's length, looking at him accusingly. "And where were _you_, Mister? I called for you, but you didn't come."

What would appear to mortal eyes to be only a stuffed toy gazed at her. {{_I was here, Maria. I was here all along._}}

"So why didn't you come? You've always been able to come into my dreams before. What stopped you this time?"

{{_You were not dreaming, Maria. Not in any sense I was able to recognize._}}

Angelique's eyes widened. "You, you mean…that was _real?_"

{{_I am unable to answer that. You, your body, your physical self, was here in your bed. But you were not in a dreaming state. Thus, I was unable to communicate with you. The part of you that I communicate with, whether awake or asleep, was not present._}}

Angelique thought and thought hard. She only had the barest understanding of _premonitions,_ the Kindred really didn't believe in them, nor was she familiar with any state where the essential _her_ would have left her body. A quick internet consult: astral projection, maybe?

But if what she'd just experienced was no mere dream….

"I have to know if Miss Kitten's alright. Bear? I'm going over there. Cover for me, would'ja?" Not waiting for an answer, she stuffed him under the sheet and turned to her exit.

In flight mode, she jetted over the silent lights of the city, zeroing in on Kitten's house. Her extended senses could already see into Kitten's second-story room, and showed her friend apparently asleep on her bed, with Charlie curled up at her feet.

Softly, she carefully and soundlessly opened the window. Miss Kitten _appeared_ to be asleep, but if there was some funny business going on, she wanted to be _sure._

But she didn't want to wake Miss Kitten. She knew that grownups sometimes get upset when you wake them up, and she didn't want to upset anybody. But without doing that, how would she know if Miss Kitten was alright?

Charlie woke up and wagged his tail at her. "Hey, boy," she whispered, picking him up. "Everything okay over here?" Charlie, of course, made no reply, but just wagged his stubby tail all the harder and tried to lick her face.

"A-angelique?" Kitten rolled over in bed, waking up. "Angelique? W-what's going on?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Kitten. I just had this crazy dream that you were in danger. Only it wasn't a dream, at least, that's what Bear said….."

"Who's Bear?"

"I'll have to introduce you sometime. But he can talk to me, especially in my dreams. And he said I wasn't dreaming, so I got worried. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to wake you."

Yawning. "That's alright, kid. I suppose I'd have done the same thing." She stretched, coming fully awake. "So. Tell me about this dream. What was it about? You say _I_ was in it?"

A few minutes, and several rounds of Old Maid, later, Kitten was still a bit puzzled. "Sounds like a pretty bad place, Angelique. Almost like He-, uh, I mean…."

"I know about Hell, Miss Kitten. My mom took me to church, back when I was living with her. And I know about Heaven, too, where Jesus and the Blessed Virgin live. And you're right; this place was sorta like what I'd think Hell would be like. 'Cept I didn't see anybody else there, and aren't there supposed to be a lot of bad people in Hell?"

Kitten shrugged. "That's what I was always taught. But who knows." She played a hand, winning the round. Angelique scarcely noticed, even though she usually won. Her mind, her worries, were elsewhere.

"Miss Kitten? I gotta question." Kitten raised an eyebrow. Angelique frowned, trying to find the right words. After living for so long with the Link, it was sometimes difficult for her to find the right words in any human language to express her thoughts correctly. "Do—do you suppose there's something _worse_ than the Devil?"

"Whoa." Kitten was taken aback. "Where'd _that_ question come from?"

Angelique looked down at her hands, folded neatly in her lap. Dammit, did the child _have_ to sit in that Osiran kneeling posture? It reminded her too uncomfortably of…..someone else. "I dunno. It's just…..I thought I sensed something there, something huge and powerful coming up behind me." She looked off, towards the window; she'd have to be getting back soon, as it would soon be daylight. But first, she had to warn Miss Kitten. "It wanted me. It wanted us both, and not in a good way, either. But the Devil, he just wants your soul, right? But this thing, whatever it was, wanted all of us. Everything we've ever been or ever will be." Her voice sank to a whisper. "It scared me, Miss Kitten. Not just for me, but for you, too." She looked up at Kitten, alarm in her eyes and voice. "So, just…..just let's us both be careful, okay? I, I really don't wanna go to that place again. Okay?"

"Hey, I'm all for that. I guess….we just have to keep on doing what we know is right, and then the Devil, or whoever, can't touch us, right?" That didn't seem like a completely satisfactory way of explaining things, but it was all she could come up with on the fly.

"I guess so. Well. I guess I better be getting back. I left Bear in my bed, but Mother Delta won't be fooled by that for long." She turned and impulsively threw her arms around Kitten, careful, as in all her dealings with humans, not to squeeze to tightly. "Be careful, Miss Kitten. I'll be seein' ya." And with that, she turned and left via the window she'd come in by.

_To be continued…._


	2. Chapter 2: War Drums

Tales of the Teen Titans: The Taking of Terra, One, Two, Three

Chapter 2: War Drums

Seer of the Way glared at his screenpad and muttered a word in a language that had been old when the glaciers still covered the Earth. Talks to God looked up sharply; Seer usually showed more restraint than that. The two were sharing fourthmeal together, as had become their custom, with Seer eating his cubed rations of meat, and Talks to God sticking to his usual bowl of warm mineral water. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"Yes. Take a look at this data." He showed Talks to God his screenpad.

Talks to God looked at the screenpad for a few moments, before shaking his head and handing it back. "I see nothing of note, on the pad."

"Exactly. We've been following a meson trail all the way from home. Now it just disappears, like a ghost in the mist."

"You've cast out the sensor nets?"

"Thrice. Each time, the same result: no result. No readings, no spoor of our quarry. We've simply lost the trail."

"Indicating what?"

"That we are no longer on the trail. The object of our search…..is not out here." The Hunter fleet was currently one hundred twenty light-years, galactic east, from Earth, cruising through a sector of space that seemed curiously devoid of life.

Talks to God rested his head on his hands and looked at his friend. "What does this mean to you?"

Seer thought. He knew what Talks to God was trying to get him to do: to formulate into words the source of his unease. He needed to, anyway. "Perhaps we took a wrong turn somewhere. Or…." He hesitated.

"Or?"

"Or perhaps we've overshot our mark. Perhaps our quarry is….behind us? But how could that be? We followed the trail so carefully…"

"Remember, what we seek is an intelligent entity. If you were being tracked, and perhaps knew it, what would you be most likely to do?"

Seer's amber-colored eyes widened. "Of course. It could've doubled back upon us. Deliberately."

"And be in any one of the half-tens of star systems we left in our wake."

Seer mulled that over. "Farseer will be calling a meeting of the various ship captains in one and a quarter decons. He will ask my advice….."

"And what will you tell him?"

Seer nodded, confidence growing. "What we have just been talking about. Everything we have indicates the quarry did not come this way. Therefore, we either lost the trail in one of those half-tens of star systems, or….."

"Or the trail ended there. Meaning we left behind the very being we seek."

Seer sighed. "Farseer won't like hearing that…."

"Unpleasant truth is nonetheless truth. And in the absence of any other evidence, we've nothing else to go on."

…

Surely, Garfield Logan thought, there could be no better definition of Heaven on Earth than to be with the one you love.

He and Terra were canvassing the mall, with an eye towards finding formal wedding attire. For him, that had been simple: your basic black tux trousers with a white coat. A frilled shirt and red bow tie completed the ensemble.

Terra's was a little different. Bridal gowns were _expensive!_ And they had to be, for the most part, custom tailored to fit her. That only added to the expense. Terra hated to sock her fiancé with the bill for such a gown, but, even though she had her own money now, these bridal gowns were beyond her financial reach. _How do regular working class people afford to get married?_ She'd wondered on more than one occasion.

Around noon, they took a break in the food court. Nachos and soda were the order of the day, and they both dug in as if they hadn't eaten in a week.

While they were chowing down, Gar reached over and took Terra's hand. "Terra?"

"Yef, Garf?" she said around a mouthful of nachos. Then she swallowed and laughed. "I _mean_, yes, Gar?"

"Terra, I've kinda noticed how you always get what I'm getting. You do know you don't have to, right? I mean, you want the meat lover's pizza, by all means, get it. I won't mind."

She chewed and swallowed some more. "I know, Gar, but this is a choice I'm making. I mean, I just don't see me as frying up bacon, ham, and whatnot, while you go outside to get away from the smell. I know how things like that make you almost gag. It would be thoughtless of me to do that sort of thing. After all, that's all part of the 'becoming one flesh' thing, y'know. That's gonna require some adaptation on both our parts."

"Hey, I'm game. I just didn't want you to go, like, undernourished or something."

She smiled, reached over and stroked his face. "Well, put your mind at ease. They do make vitamins, you know. Prenatal vitamins, too, even." They both grinned at that; they'd long ago decided on two children to start with, at least. That would be plenty for starters. "Say, Gar. You don't suppose there'd be some way to work Kitten into the ceremony, do you?"

"Huh? I, I hadn't even thought about it. I mean, I kinda thought we'd go with Robin giving you away, Starfire and Raven being Maids of Honor-*"

"That's…..another thing," she broke in, delicately, placing her other hand on the one he had on hers. "Have you, by any chance, noticed anything, er, odd about Raven lately?"

He wiped his mouth with his free hand. "No. Should I have?"

"Mmmm, maybe. The other day—and don't take this the wrong way, understand—but, the other day, after the meeting, when you were talking to Robin, she was….watching you."

"Oh. Is that all." He laughed. "Yeah, she does that, occasionally. Usually, just after I've played some prank on her. She's sizing me up for revenge."

"Oh, she was sizing you up, alright, but not for revenge. She was checking out your butt, Gar."

He was startled. Then, "Oh come on. _Raven?_ You gotta be kidding me. Not Raven!"

"Yes Raven. I know it sounds weird…."

"That's an understatement. I mean, you've seen how we interact: I play a joke on her, she bounces me off a few walls, maybe explodes my tofu in my face, an' we're cool after that. More like brother and sister than anything else. Little brother and big sister."

"Well, maybe I am. Mistaken, that is. Maybe it's just me. Hope so, anyway."

They were both silent for a while after that. Then, Terra continued. "But getting back to Kitten…it's like I told her: I'd rather she was with us than against us. And she could so easily go back to being bad. I guess I kinda relate to that; if it hadn't been for you, only God knows where I'd be today, or what I'd be doing. It just seems like the thing to do, to get her to hang with us as much as possible. It's really easy to turn to the dark side of the force, you know."

"I know. I almost did, myself, long ago. Well, I'll speak to Mrs. Jones about it; she's in charge of the ceremony." He smiled. "And if Kitten agrees, she'll make one _heckuva_ bridesmaid, what with that red skin and barbed tail."

….

The Van Cleer residence: Kitten was growing increasingly bored, and she knew that was always a dangerous condition for her. But what to do?

Build a death ray in the basement? Check. Modify her flying hover platform? Working on it. She wanted to add a couple of scramjets to it, but that meant fully enclosing the cockpit, adding environmental.

Idly, she scanned the news reports. She knew she should be filling out applications for college, but just couldn't seem to get in the mood right now. But it was something she'd have to do. Who ever heard of a supervillain without a college degree?

Thinking about that, she paused. Did she _really_ want to be a supervillain, anyway? Or was it just something she'd fall into, due mostly to her father's being one? He hadn't been terribly successful; she was convinced she could do a lot better.

But did she want to? Not for the first time, she asked herself just what her life's goals ought to be. Should she, maybe, take Robin up on his offer of membership in the Titans? But she just didn't see herself doing that, throwing herself into harm's way for a bunch of persnickety ingrates.

Hm. Now that was interesting. CNN reported that the small nation of Markovia was in the process of signing a peace treaty with the neighboring country of Jalid. The two had been having "border disputes" now for about a decade. But the reporter stated that a breakthrough had been accomplished, or soon would be, leading to a lasting peace in that troubled area of the world.

Terra. She was from Markovia, wasn't she? In fact, that was her last name: Markov. So, yeah, this was the country she came from. Kitten had heard about how she'd been basically "invited to leave" due to her being illegitimate, and therefore a possible political embarrassment for the Markovian king. Thinking about that made Kitten's blood boil. Just because the old man couldn't keep his pants zipped, the daughter had to suffer. Typical patriarchal male-pig chauvinist..….she ran out of adjectives.

Well, maybe Terra could take some measure of confort in knowing the land of her birth would soon be at peace. More than likely, she probably didn't really care. _They_ certainly hadn't cared about _her._

For some reason, Kitten found herself wondering about that. Maybe it was just knowing somebody from that part of the world. She regarded Terra as a friend, sort of.

A quick internet search: yes, Markovia, Jalid. Border disputes going back twelve years. Jalid had the oil; Markovia had the minerals. Why couldn't they just arrange to trade?

Oh, right. Trade disagreements were what started the whole thing to begin with. Then "border disputes"—no doubt matters just escalated from there. $ometime$ people were ju$t plain $tupid.

But it looked like the two countries were finally on the road to peace. That was a good thing.

So why did this make her so uneasy?

…

Apokolips: a short, stocky form wearing a cape and green mail armor entered Darkseid's throne room. "And how may Granny serve her Lord and Master today?" she simpered.

Darkseid rubbed his chin in his hands. "I've a task for you, Granny.. One you and your Furies are uniquely qualified for." At his mental command, a holographic display appeared, just over his left side. It showed Tara Zharkov, now a resident of Steel City, training with the Titans' East. "I want you to go to Earth—taking whomever you deem best—and bring this girl to me, here, to the center of my power. Also," here he touched a display control, and the holographic show began to depict scenes of Omega fighting Kalibak, "I want more information on this creature. Find out anything you can. Don't be too obvious about it—we've no need to break the covenant with New Genesis yet—but find out everything you can. I have to know the origin of this creature, and its abilities. You know the procedure; if you take prisoners, and they prove reluctant to talk, which they probably will, bring them to DeSaad for questioning.

"As for the girl….it will be your task to break her to my will. Is this understood?"

"Completely, milord." And Granny Goodness bowed and backed out of the throne room.

Steppenwulf entered next. "Ah, Uncle," greeted Darkseid, "It would seem that your last mission was somewhat less than a rousing success."

"True, milord. We did bring back some information, however."

"Ah, yes, _information_. That always helps so much," replied Darkseid, only half-sarcastically. It actually had helped some. He couldn't deny that. "That brings me to another topic." Here he touched a very special control knob, turning it all the way to the right. Waited a moment for a green LED to cease blinking and become a steady light. "There. This room is now secure from all prying eyes and ears. Now, Captain. What of your _secret_ orders? What of the expedition's _real_ objective?"

Steppenwulf blinked. "Secret orders, milord?"

"Don't tell me you've forgotten."

Captain Steppenwulf started. "Oh, of course, milord! There were no secret orders. That was a code-word we'd agreed upon before I left, in case an imposter tried to come back in my place."

Darkseid relaxed somewhat. "Excellent, Captain. Now. I have yet another task for you….." And he outlined his plan.

The thing that looked like Steppenwulf listened intently.

….

Nighttime in Pueblo Villa, Arizona, United States, Earth: it was quiet. Almost too quiet, thought Sheriff Ron Davis.

The town itself looked like something you'd see on an old re-run of _Gunsmoke_ or one of the other old western serials: sleepy adobe brick houses, glowing soft yellow light from within. As he patrolled, he couldn't help but think about the other times he'd come this way. Somehow, in some way he couldn't put his finger on, there was something different about tonight.

He remembered a time, many years ago, when a local grizzly bear had gone rogue, and taken to killing hikers and campers. It had escaped tracking and execution for many months, as the Fish and Game authorities sought it with every means at their disposal. The body count had risen to seven victims, with many more maimed and wounded before it was finally tracked down and shot.

Ron Davis had been just a boy of twelve or so at the time, but he could clearly remember the chill of terror he, and others, both adults and children, had felt when nightfall approached, and the _knowing_ that there was a monster somewhere out there, in the darkness, watching, waiting. He felt something of that same skin-crawling fear right now, but he couldn't have said why.

He paused a moment while he checked the shotgun on the gun rack behind him in his patrol car. There; a Remington 870 pump-action shotgun, loaded and ready for action. Normally it would be loaded with number one buckshot, but tonight, and all of this week, in fact, he'd changed things around a little.

So the shotgun behind him was no longer rigged as a smoothbore antipersonnel weapon. It now sported a rifled barrel, tritium-laced ghost-ring night-sights, and was loaded with Brenneke sabot slugs. If all that didn't stop (_whatever_), he figured he may as well just give up and get a crucifix.

The streets seemed abnormally empty tonight. True, Pueblo Villa would never qualify as a night-life hotspot, but there was still the club down the street, as well as the local bars. Even the abandoned movie theatre on the outskirts of town could usually be counted on to attract a few bums, one of whom would invariably have a bottle to pass around. Plus, the town's only cafeteria, and the coffee shop just across the street from it usually drew some people.

But there was nobody out tonight. No late night citizens out for a walk, nobody at the café, nobody in the Starbuck's, and, as he made a swing past it, no bums around the old theatre. Where could everybody be? Then he checked the time.

Well, yeah, at two in the morning, it was reasonable to suppose that everybody in the small village was probably home in bed. He smiled at his own over-reaction. Of course they were home in bed! He was letting his imagination run away with him.

But as he passed by the high school's football field, he happened to notice something odd. He looked again. There was a group of people standing around on the fifty-yard line, looking up. Something about the sight made the hairs on the back of his neck stir, slightly.

He pulled over, got out of the car, and walked over to them. Now, closer, he recognized some of them; they were from town, all right. Every single one of them was staring with a quiet but unnerving intensity at the full moon.

Sheriff Davis approached one of them. "Hey, Cy. What's going on? Late night stargazing?" But Cy made no reply, instead simply continuing to stare at the moon with that same concentration. For all the reaction he showed, Davis might as well not been there. "Cy? Hey, man. It's me, Ron. Talk to me. What's everybody doing out here, this late? Sarah? Mrs. Macgillacudy?" It was unnerving how they just ignored him.

Only now Cy turned to look at him. The others in the group turned to look at him at the same time. Their heads moved as one; their faces expressionless.

Ron Davis found himself backing away. Something was definitely wrong here. Why were they all so silent? Why were they all acting so strangely?

And in the next second, the answer came to him. Of course. It was so obvious. But by then it was far too late.

…..

"I still don't see," began Cyborg, "how all this crazy junk is supposed to work. Most of it makes no sense at all, to me."

"I know, but it does work," replied Kitten, who was helping him develop a control system for the Osiran matrix matter/energy manipulator Omega had commandeered from the Kindred. It wasn't easy; the Osiran matrix had originally been designed to be activated and directed by Osiran thought-waves. Omega had connected to it directly, but humans just didn't have the necessary equipment to do that. Hence, the keyboard interface and control. "I suppose we _could_, if we wanted to, design some form of thought-control into it. Maybe something based on biofeedback or something." The two had been working for hours, trying to design some means of controlling the alien device. "The only problem with that is, it would probably respond to the wrong thoughts. I mean, just imagine what might happen if, say, you're in the middle of a nightmare and the machine senses your dreams? Or, even awake, it might act on an impulse you might not want it to. Ever see the old movie, _Forbidden Planet_? Monsters from the id, and all that. There'd have to be some way to tune it so it wouldn't do stuff like that, act on subconscious thoughts and impulses. Otherwise, it'd make nuclear bombs look like firecrackers by comparison."

Cyborg shuddered. "I think I see what you mean. Yeah, it's maybe better to limit its input."

"This program I've designed ought to give us some measure of control over the dingus. It won't be as efficient or flexible, or as powerful, as it would be if it were controlled by thought, of course, but we can still get it to do pretty much anything we're likely to need it to do." She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, not because she was sweating—she wasn't—but more from force of habit than anything else. "Maybe, when I've got time, I can come up with something better…."

At that exact moment, Robin poked his head through the door. "Heads up, everyone. Cinderblock's on the loose again. We need to roll."

Cyborg got up. "Hey, Kitten. Wanna come with?"

She shrugged. "Sure. May as well." She knew, of course, what he was saying: Cinderblock was a powerful foe, and they'd need all they could muster. Which meant all the available Titans. Which, in turn, meant that if she_ didn't _come with them, that meant leaving her alone in the Tower. They didn't trust her _that_ much. _Well, I guess I can see why._

So a short time later, she found herself on her flying platform (her "magic carpet," as she was coming to think of it) alongside Raven and Starfire, while Cyborg, Robin, and Hank raced to the scene in their individual vehicles. "What've we got, Rob?" asked Cyborg, "Which bank is he hitting this time?"

From his R-cycle, Robin touched the transceiver in his ear. "That's the curious part. He's not hitting a bank this time. He's burglarizing a pharmacy."

"A _pharmacy_?"

"Right. Bit of a change of pace for him, I agree."

Cinderblock was on his way out of the pharmacy when a flurry of starbolts hammered into him, forcing him back. He clutched the small bag he was carrying, and raised him arm to ward them off, only to have a levitated car slam into him from behind, courtesy of Raven. He recovered, but, rather than attack, as he normally did, turned, and ran down the street. "Don't let him get away!" ordered Robin.

But Cinderblock wasn't trying to get away. He found a sturdy abandoned building, and turned towards the oncoming heroes, making a stand.

Starfire narrowly avoided a thrown dumpster, only to catch a roundhouse from the villain that sent her crashing into a storefront across the street. Raven concentrated and levitated a section of the road he'd just been on, wrapping it around and around him. But the road was only asphalt, and Cinderblock was tougher than that. He easily broke the binding ribbon of road…just in time to get a face-full of smoke bombs, blinding him, confusing him. But he still had the advantage: his back was up against a wall, and he was the defender.

Robin vaulted over him, and Cinderblock was rocked by the explosion of a shaped charge Robin had slapped on his back. _Keep him off balance…._ Another round of starbolts drove him back, back into the closed-in alleyway. He picked up a section of the road Raven had so recently levitated and hurled it at his annoyance.

Starfire went down, caught off guard. Cinderblock roared in triumph, and rushed her…..

….only to have his feet slip on the patch of ice that suddenly appeared beneath him. Down _he_ went, with a resounding _boooomm_ that stunned him long enough for Raven to levitate some steel I-beams into place around him.

Starfire looked back. Kitten, still on her hover platform, was holstering her freeze ray and grinning like a thief. "Hey, Star. You owe me." Starfire grinned in response, and gave her the "thumbs up" sign she'd learned from her lover.

With Cinderblock secured, Robin went over to see what the brute had stolen. What he found puzzled him. It was mostly supplies for immunoglobulin treatment; Cinderblock hadn't stolen any money, for a change. That was….odd. And totally out of character.

Or was it? Cinderblock was, like many another supervillain, pretty much all about money. Robin had little doubt that these pharmaceuticals would bring a hefty price on the black market. _But I'd have to be really desperate to purchase drugs from a walking rockpile,_ he thought, shuddering a bit. At that moment, he noticed something else odd. "Hey, where's Terra and Beast Boy?"

Cyborg shrugged. "I sent 'em a signal. Maybe they're just slow."

"No. Terra can move pretty fast when she wants to, and Gar's no slouch, either." He got on his T-cell, speed-dialing them both. "Terra? Beast Boy?"

There was no reply. Muttering, he shook his communicator, as if the shaking would somehow restore communications. "Cyborg? Can you pinpoint their coordinates?"

"On it." A holographic display shown over Cyborg's left shoulder, a map of the city as seen from the air. A small red blip indicated the missing Titans' T-cells. "Looks like they're just outside the mall."

Robin chewed his lip. Normally, he'd just make a mental note to ream the two of them out later, for missing the call, but something told him this was different. "Let's go check up on them."

Tracing the signals from the T-cells led them to an alleyway just behind the shopping mall. Now Robin _definitely_ knew something was amiss. "Fan out," he ordered, "Find them."

They found Beast Boy behind a dumpster, unconscious, breathing shallow, heart unsteady. Robin shined his pocket light into the green teenager's eyes. His pupils were dilated, his breathing unsteady and harsh. "Looks like he's been drugged." He checked his pulse. It was light and rapid. "Get him to the Tower. Anybody see any sign of Terra?" But there was no sign of the blond earthmover.

Accompanied by Kitten and Cyborg, Robin rushed Beast Boy back to the Tower. Garfield's pulse was not steady, and he was showing all the classic symptoms of narcotic overdose. Cyborg began pulling up anything useful for the treatment of such, all the while casting a worried look at his friend on the bed. "Rob…he's been given a pretty powerful drug. We—we could lose him."

"No. That won't happen, Vic. Do whatever it takes." Robin got back on his T-cell, calling the others, who he'd left behind to search for Terra. "Any luck?"

"Nothing," replied Raven. "We did find her T-cell, but no sign of her. This is beginning to look like a professional kidnapping."

"More than that. Gar's life is in danger. Whoever drugged him didn't mess around. If he were anybody else, he'd probably be dead by now, but Gar's got the constitution of an elephant. Whoever did this is playing for keeps." Then, "Raven. Can your powers track Terra?"

"Not in the middle of town. Too many other minds around."

"Then get on back here. We've gotta get Gar awake. He's the only lead we have."

Kitten watched as Cyborg worked over Beast Boy. "Need any help?"

He glanced at her, his expression darker than the night outside. "Uh, no, Kitten, I think—I hope—I got this under control." But try as he might, Gar's vital signs dipped ever lower. "C'mon, grass stain, don't you dare shut down on me, you still owe me a round of _Monkey Ninja Mutants._ You don't get off _this_ easy." He drew a syringe full of some clear fluid, and injected it into the quiescent form on the bed. Started an IV drip. "Now all we can do is wait."

And the waiting began.

…..

Angelique knocked on the door to the Van Cleer residence. Killer Moth opened it. "Oh, hey, Angelique. Uh, Kitten's not here right now."

"That's okay, Mr. Moth. I just wanted to bring over some more of Charlie's dog food. Where is Miss Kitten, anyway?"

"Over at Titans' Tower. She was helping them get some control over that Osiran machine they have."

"Well, let me leave this, an' I'll just jet over there." And so, in short order, Angelique found herself on the roof of the Tower, signaling for entrance. Kitten herself let her in, a worried expression on her face. "What's wrong, Miss Kitten?"

"It's Beast Boy, Angelique. Apparently, some bad people tried to hurt him. And Terra's missing."

"No! Is—is he alright?"

"We don't know yet, kid. C'mon down; I'll show you." And she led Angelique down into the Titans' infirmary. Angelique's eyes widened when she saw all the furious activity going on around Beast Boy's bed, the worried expressions on the faces of the adults. This was serious.

She turned to Kitten. "He—he's gonna be alright, isn't he? I mean…" She'd once tried to kill Beast Boy, but now that seemed like something that happened in another lifetime, to someone else. Now, she couldn't imagine harm coming to her new friend, or why anyone would want to hurt him in the first place. He was always laughing and playing jokes…..and what was this about Miss Terra being missing?

Inside the ICU room: a graph chart dipped alarmingly. "_Damn,_" muttered Cyborg, hurriedly preparing another injection. Beast Boy's breathing was becoming labored. Cyborg swiftly gave him the shot.

The hours dragged by…..

Kitten and Angelique were watching television when Cyborg finally came out of the intensive care facility. "Well, he'll live. But it was a near thing, there. Whoever drugged him didn't screw around. Oh," he caught sight of Angelique sitting there, "Uh, sorry, I meant to say…."

"I know about screws, Mr. Cyborg. Father Alpha says they're obsolete."

Cyborg laughed. "Yeah, well, he's right. But what I meant to say was, he should be waking up in a few minutes. Ya'll wanna come see?"

Beast Boy's consciousness swam reluctantly back into his head. The first thing he was aware of was an intense pounding pain. It felt like he'd gone several rounds with a T-1000. "Ooh. What—what happened? Where's—" He jolted upright. "Terra! They—they took her!"

"Relax, Beast Boy," soothed Robin. "Stay calm. Breathe. Now. _Who_ took her?"

Beast Boy rubbed his head. "I, I didn't get that good a look at them. I felt a sting, on, on my leg. Then things got weird…I fell down and couldn't move. I saw Terra fall, too….guess they must've done the same to her. Some weird types in black outfits. I—I tried to get up, but I couldn't. That's all I remember." He looked up at Robin, fear evident on his face. "Who could've taken her, Rob? And why?"

"I don't-*"

"Guys! Look!" Kitten gestured to the TV set. A CNN spokesperson was busy reporting: _"…and it seems with the joining of the royal houses of Markovia and Jalid, a lasting peace is finally a reality…."_

Kitten turned to Robin. "Jalid. They've got a king, don't they? And he doesn't have an heir, right?"

Robin's lips were one thin line. "That's right. Okay. I think it's safe to say we know who grabbed Terra, and why."

"Wait. What?" Beast Boy was still groggy.

"I'll have to check to be sure, but it sure seems kinda obvious, Gar. Apparently, Terra's dad has finally found some use for his embarrassment of a daughter after all. That's how royal houses are joined, after all, amongst some old-world countries: marriage of the king's daughter to the neighboring boss-man."

"Rob! We can't let that happen!"

"Damn straight, we won't," boiled Kitten. "Just lemme at that Osiran miracle machine, an' I'll teleport her back here so fast-*"

"That'll be Plan B, Kitten," said Robin, suddenly showing a grim smile. He turned to the others. "Consider: Terra was taken from us by force. Deadly force was used against one of our own. Call me peculiar, but I'm in no mood to be gentle right now." He looked around at the others.

"I say we invade Markovia."

_To be continued…._


	3. Chapter 3: Invasion

Tales of the Teen Titans: The Taking of Terra, One, Two, Three: chapter 3

_Invasion_

Markovia, 6:00 AM: In a small room, a man sat at a desk, looking over some reports, and shaking his head.

He didn't look like what most people would think of when they imagined what a king would look like. Although obviously the recipient of the best medical, cosmetic, and hygienic care available, he was, at this moment, wearing a simple tee shirt and jeans. His slight build, head of grey hair, and five foot eleven inch height would not have distinguished him in a crowd. There were times when he was glad of that.

The reports were not encouraging. The economy was in a tailspin, unemployment rising rapidly, and international lenders refusing to further fund his obviously financially troubled nation. The ongoing conflict with Jalid hadn't been particularly good for the economy, but it had taken the people's minds off their worries. For a time.

That time was up, however. Already, the parliament was demanding action on his part. He was, after all, the king. Ultimately, the responsibility for his nation would fall on him. He should do something, they said. He shook his head harder. As if he could magic up the necessary funds to restore his kingdom to its former state. He wished he could.

Well, maybe this latest, desperate venture would prove effective in doing just that. If he could secure a treaty with Jalid, and gain access to its oil-rich fields, perhaps he could pull his country out of the waste pile it seemed destined for.

He sighed. Well, at least the result of his youthful indiscretion would prove useful, at long last. He had toyed with the notion of simply contacting her and asking for her assistance, but was advised against it. His counselors were right; Terra had spent far too much time in America, where she'd no doubt inculcated such foolish American notions as _freedom_ and _individuality._ Plus, they hadn't exactly parted on the best of terms anyway. No, she'd never voluntarily agree to this union, not even to save his beloved country.

So she had to agree to it _involuntarily._ There was simply no other way. The girl would marry the King of Jalid and thus bind the two countries together as one. No doubt, once her head was allowed to clear, she wouldn't be happy about the situation, but perhaps, in time, she'd come to see reason.

…

Terra, for her part, was very confused.

She literally couldn't think straight. The drugs in her system lulled her into a state of compliance, but only because she couldn't bring her own reasoning faculties to bear. All she knew was what someone had told her: she was home, she was a princess, just like she'd always wanted to be. And she was to marry a prince. At least, she thought he was a prince. Wasn't that the way it was in the old stories? The princess always married a prince? She wasn't sure…..but somehow, whenever she tried to think of her prince, she pictured a handsome green boy in her mind. A green boy with a sparkle in his eyes, and a wide smile, one that promised fun and laughter. But why was he green?

Maybe he was a frog. A frog prince. The thought made her giggle. The chambermaids attending to her showed absolutely no reaction whatsoever.

…..

6:30 AM: the forward field command of the Markovian sixth army division was in a state of condition yellow alert. The upper echelons had sent word down the chain of command to be ready for anything. Only certain top officials knew why, and, among themselves, professed not to worry. The Americans would most probably do nothing, of course. Oh, they might lodge a formal complaint against Markovia, but that was all. There was, after all, nothing to point a finger in their direction; their special ops group had seen to that. The only witness to the, ah, _retrieval_ of Markovia's errant princess had been dealt with in what was surely a terminal way. And American teenagers died of drug overdoses every day, so there could be nothing unusual about this one, surely.

Nonetheless, it never hurt to be cautious.

6:32 AM: A sleepy tech was monitoring the radar when he noticed an unannounced flight coming into view. He immediately radioed for identity, but received no reply.

At that exact moment, the alarms went off.

"Emergency! Emergency! We have multiple bogies, incoming! Repeat, multiple incoming bogies! Southwest and southeast! All units, respond!"

A great deal of the effectiveness of any fighting force depends upon efficient, reliable field communications. Any army dogface knows that when such communications break down, chaos results.

And it's almost sinfully easy for a low-level psionic, who's already familiar with field communications to begin with, to interfere with such comparatively delicate instrumentation.

At six thousand feet: Robin turned to Hank, sitting behind him in his pod of the T-ship. "You're on, Hank. Do your stuff." Hank didn't have anything like Raven's power, but for what he was about to do, he didn't need it. He concentrated…..

On the ground: all of a sudden, the electrons in the various command units' electronics decided to play hookie from school today, and began behaving in an erratic manner that could best be described by one word, a word that would come to be Hank's code name: _Haywire._

"We've lost communications with all forward units, sir."

"_Shit._ What of rear-guard units? Can we bring them up?"

"Comm signal fading…gone, sir."

"Are we being jammed? Are the Americans jamming us?"

Head shake. "It's not any kind of jamming I'm familiar with, sir. All our electronics….they're just all going off-line, for some reason." Even as he spoke, his console whined in a descending note and powered down. The tech turned to his commanding officer, eyes wide with alarm. "Sir, last reports from the front said we had multiple boom-tube incursions, with dozens, maybe hundreds of metahumans pouring out of them."

_So it's not the Americans._ "God help us."

….

Cyborg, piloting his pod of the T-ship, prepared to deploy his on-board sonic cannon, a larger, more powerful version of the one his arms could morph into. His was one of two such pods currently over Markovian airspace. There were only two boom tubes opened here at the front, and most of the "hundreds" of metahuman troops were naught but carefully crafted holographic illusions.

Most, but not all. Between the two of them, Raven and Starfire could definitely make it _seem_ like an army of metahuman troops were approaching.

He targeted one group of Markovian tanks, the concussive blast of his cannon practically shaking them to pieces. He'd turned to another group, when he noticed he and Robin weren't alone up here. There was something missile-sized moving up rapidly from the rear, faster than any missile. "I hope that's not you, Angelique," he said, into his communicator.

"_Well, of course it is, Mr. Cyborg. I know you guys told me to stay back, but Miss Terra's my friend, too. Besides, I gotta cool new weapon I wanna try out."_ With that, she landed and morphed into a directional dish antenna, aiming at the Markovian armored divisions just now coming into view over the horizon.

Said divisions suddenly found everything metal growing red-hot. With spontaneous yelps, they threw away guns, knives, bandoliers, belt buckles. Those of them unfortunate enough to be inside the tanks, scrambled to get out of the suddenly-induction heated metal compartments, yelling as their hands slipped and touched a bit of glowing-hot metal. Then the powder magazines and fuel containers blew with definitive finality, as the troops themselves, now divested of all metal, scrambled for safer ground….

A small fact about boom tubes: the name derives from the characteristic thunder they emit when different atmospheric pressures meet. However, if one is careful enough, and regulates the air pressure at the entrance of the tube, boom tubes don't have to boom. They can be quite silent.

Such a silent tube opened up on the ground floor of the Markovian castle. Beast Boy and Kitten emerged, Garfield already in tiger mode, with Kitten's drawn freeze ray covering them both. But they lucked out: their arrival chanced to be in an unoccupied portion of the castle.

Beast Boy morphed back to human. "C'mon. We gotta find Terra."

"Wait, Gar." Kitten motioned to the ceiling. "Best way is to find the security center. We need to take it out of action first, anyway. And you remember what Robin said: in and out, fast as possible. That's gonna be the fastest way. We need to make the most of the diversion the others are creating." She'd memorized a schematic of the castle's layout prior to their incursion. "It's down this way."

Soon the pair found themselves at a closed and locked door. "You ready?" she asked. Gar's response was to morph into a green rhinoceros and smash in the door. "Alright," said Kitten, to the terrified techs manning the station, "Nobody try anything stupid, and nobody gets hurt. But that's up to you." As one, they each raised their hands in surrender. With Gar covering them in tiger mode, she found some rope and tied them up. Then she took a look at the monitors. "There she is. I count one, two, six attendants. Okay, now where _is_ that room?" She spied a small schematic of the floor taped to one console. "Okay. There she is. Let's book." From the door, she turned and used her freeze ray on the consoles, shattering them.

Down the hall, three turns to the right, they found themselves at a plain, unadorned door. Kitten backed against one side, her freeze ray at the ready. "Hey, Gar." The green tiger looked up at her. "Lemme try something before we go in like gangbusters, 'kay?" He looked puzzled but nodded, and Kitten adjusted a dial on her gun. Extreme low-level, superconduction beam only.

With one swift move, Kitten kicked in the door, and, from a semi-kneeling posture, swept the invisible beam across the room, catching the chambermaids in its field of influence. The result was startling: each chambermaid jerked sharply, then leaned to one side, like puppets whose strings had been cut.

"I thought so," said Kitten, straightening up. "Robot chambermaids. Figures. The fewer humans, the fewer chances of human error. Let's get her out of here before they reboot." Gar morphed back into human form, and they both rushed over to Terra, who hadn't moved, being unaffected by the beam.

"Terra! Honey, can you hear me?" Garfield was frantic. He shook her, slightly.

Terra's face was frighteningly blank. "My prince? Is it time already?" Her voice was slurred; Gar checked her eyes, while Kitten covered the door, her freeze ray set back to maximum.

"She's narked to the gills," Kitten said, before he could say anything. "Go on, get her to the extraction point. The longer we stay here, the more chances there are of things going south."

He morphed into a green gorilla, easily picking up the drugged girl, and headed for the exit. He paused a moment when he noticed Kitten holstering her gun, and looking down the hallway.

At his unspoken question, she said, "Go on, get her to safety. I'll be along in a minute. Just got one little detail to deal with, and I'll be right with you."

…..

The king of Markovia heard the alarms, and was busy trying to summon his security forces. Only none of his electronics would work; no matter how many times he pressed the red button, nothing seemed to happen. He couldn't raise anyone on his cell, either…..

….

Of course, there were other security stations throughout the castle. And most of the hallways were covered by the ubiquitous security cameras. However, not a one of them was aimed at the ceiling.

Kitten skittered along the ceiling, her claws digging into the soft tiling, pausing only when she heard someone coming, thankful that this was one of the more modern (read: _cheap_) sections of the building, with tile plates held in place by a framework. She ducked into the ceiling itself, lifting the gravity-held tile, and paused in the crawlspace until the voices passed by. Then she resumed her search.

Her memory supplied her with a certain amount of knowledge regarding the various offices. She had a hunch which one her quarry was in….

The Markovian king was so busy trying to raise _someone_ on his communications array that he didn't notice when the door to this room softly opened and closed. Didn't notice anything amiss until something like red rope descended from the ceiling and wrapped around his neck, tightening, and, with considerable strength, lifted his slight form completely off the ground. He gasped, and grasped the rope, or whatever it was, just to keep from being hanged by it. He looked towards the source of this…

….and gasped again when his eyes registered what seemed to be a red-skinned she-devil hanging from the ceiling. It was her tail that had him by the throat. "You've _gotta_ be Terra's dad. The resemblance is just too strong," purred the apparition, "We've come for your daughter, Chuck," it said, in the manner of one quoting a line from a play or movie.

"_Guar-*"_ But the constricting tail tightened, so that he could barely breathe.

"Oh, no," said the she-devil, smiling a smile that made him break into a cold sweat. Were-were those _fangs_ in her mouth? What in the world was going on? "This is a _private_ conversation, Chuck."

….

Titans' Tower: One last remote signal opened a boom tube into the main conference hall, and Kitten stepped out. The tube closed immediately. The others were already back; once Terra had been secured, they had tubed straight back to the Tower.

Kitten noted that Terra, Cyborg, and Beast Boy were not in evidence. No doubt they'd rushed her into the infirmary to try to counteract the effect of the drugs she'd been given. Robin was giving a grinning Angelique a severe talking-to about the importance of following orders. Kitten grinned herself, at that. She doubted it'd do much good; Angelique was too much like _her_.

He came over to her. "Well? What kept you?"

"Had to go talk to someone. How's Terra?"

….

They convened a couple of hours later, in the conference room, with a groggy, headachy Terra sitting in place by her fiancé. "Thanks, guys. That, uh, came outta nowhere."

"So, Kitten," began Robin. "You said you had to go talk to someone? Who?" At that exact moment, their red phone rang: the Watchtower was calling. "Uh oh, that's probably for me," he muttered. "Hang on a moment, everybody." He slipped out to take the call in private.

He was back within ten minutes, a grim smile on his face. "That was Batman. Seems _somebody_ stirred up a hornet's nest of trouble in the mid-east, and Markovia's ambassador lodged a formal complaint. Or, rather, he tried to: Batman let J'onn handle it. I imagine trying to lie to a telepath is just _asking_ for complete and total humiliation." He chuckled. "I would've given a lot to've been a fly on the wall during that conversation. But the upshot is, no complaint was filed." Then he sobered. "But we need to make some plans so's to prevent this sort of thing from happening again….."

"Ah, I don't think you'll really have to worry so much about a repeat performance, Rob," said Kitten. "I, ah, had a little chat with Terra's dad. I think I made him see our point of view."

Terra stared. "You….talked to my father?"

"Sort of. I told him that we _really_ didn't appreciate his latest escapade, and that if it happened again, I'd have to come back and rob him of his heirlooms."

"His….heirlooms?"

"Yeah. I told him I'd relieve him of, uh," and here she looked at Angelique and covered her mouth. "I told him if I had to get involved again, I'd come back and relieve him of the family jewels, if you get my drift."

Terra started laughing. "And he believed you?"

"Yeah. Well, maybe not at first. He was sorta in denial. But sometime after I broke his arm, but before I fractured his collarbone, it dawned on him that I wasn't kidding around. And I wasn't."

Now all the Titans were chortling. "You _beat up_ the king of Markovia?" Robin asked.

"Damn right I did. We look out for our own." Then she noticed everybody looking at her. "What?"

Terra said, "You just said 'we'."

Kitten started. "Oh, uh, I, uh, meant, you know, we women. We super-types. Oh, you know what I meant."

"_I_ know what you meant," said Terra, throwing her arms around the red girl. "Welcome to the Titans, Kitten."

"I am so _not a goody-goody!"_ And she kept right on saying that all the way through the paperwork, right into the fingerprinting procedure.

Where it was discovered, to Robin's consternation, that she didn't have any.

_The end._


End file.
